Apparatus for baking porcelain and similar substances in continuous furnaces with movable hearths.



E. G. PAUGERON. APPARATUS FOR BAKING PORCELAIN AND SIMILAR SUBSTANCES IN 00NTINUOUS FURNACES WITH MOVABLE HEARTHS. APPLICATION FILED OUT. 11, 1911.

Patented July 14, 1914.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

flu/ed014- M W 9 S v v AZLWJ/JJ Wb'messes E. G. FAUGERON.

APPARATUS FOR BAKING PORCELAIN AND SIMILAR SUBSTANCES WITH MOVABLE HEARTHS.

"APPLICATION FILED 00'1'.11 1911.

Patented July 14,1914L 2 sH'BETssHEBT 2.

IN CONTINUOUS FURNACES UNIT star-us arana? OFFICE.

ERNEST GABRIEL FAUGERON, OF MONTEREAU, FRANCE, ASSIGNOR 0F ONE-HALF T'O SOCIETE ANONYME FRANCE.

DES FAIENCERIES DE CREII. MONTEREAU, OF MONTEREAU, i

APPARATUS FOR BAKING PORCELAIN AND SIMILAR SUBSTANCES IN CONTINUOUS FURNACES WITH MOVABLE HEARTHS.

Application filed October 11, 1911.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ERNEST GABRIEL FAU- GERON, a citizen of the Republic of France,

residing in M'ontereau, Seine-et-Marne, France, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Baking Porcelain and Similar Substances in Continuous Furnaces with Movable Hearths, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a process and to an apparatus for baking porcelain and similar products.

It relates particularly to a process for baking porcelain and similar materials in a continuous furnace provided with a movable hearth.

The object of the present invention is to obtain perfect baking of the most delicate products, and this object is attained by combining with the normal fire grates of continuous furnaces at present'in use, supplementary fire grates located at a predetermined distance from the said normal fire grates.

The continuous furnaces having movable hearths of the various systems known at present are satisfactory enough for baking bricks, pottery and refractory products. Certain of these furnaces are also employed with good success for baking biscuit or enameled earthenware. But the results are much less satisfactory when these furnaces are applied to the baking of porcelains and the fine stonewares, and, in general, of all the products, decorated or not, which require a carefully predetermined atmosphere at a precise moment of the baking.

" Porcelain requires a baking in an atmosphere which is of a suitable deoxidizing nature, before reaching the softening-point of the paste. In order to obtain, in present continuous furnaces, a sufliciently deoxidizing atmosphere at the desired place, the firegrates are obliged to be run in a very deoxidizing condition, which has the inconvenience of producing, on the entry of the gases into the furnace, a temperature which is not sufliciently high, on account of the very excess of these unconsumed gases.

Moreover, porcelain which has been in the path of these reducing gases is of a yellow and unacceptable tint. On the other hand,

Specification of Letters Patent.

Serial N 0. 654,018.

if the condition of the fire-grates is made less deoxidizing, there are frequently pieces insufiiciently deoxidized and which are naturally yellow and opaque.

The invention comprises interposing in the gas passage, between the normal firegrates and the chimney, supplementary firegrates, the gases from which penetrate the furnace at the place Where the porcelain begins to fuse, and with the above-named process, one can run these fire-grates in a. very deoxidizing state, and, on the other hand, can moderate the deoxidation in the normal fire-grates of the furnace. In this manner there is formed between the two groups of fire-grates an atmosphere which is very hot and very regular, approaching as much as possible a neutral atmosphere. Under these conditions, the oxid of iron which the paste contains is perfectly reduced in the mass before fusion, and the baking of the porce-. lain ends without excess of deoxidation, and also without excess of oxidation.

In the drawings attached to this specifi- Patented July 14, 1914;

section of the continuous furnace (there is shown only the median portion-corresponding to the fire-grates and the priming of the inlet and outlet extremities of the tunnel of the furnace, into which advance the trucks which are loaded with the porcelain to be' baked). Fig. 2 is a horizontal section corresponding to Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is, on a larger scale, a transverse section on the line M-M, showing the details of the supplementary deoxidizing fire-grates.

It 1s not necessary to enter into the details as to the arrangement of the furnace,.in and of itself. In this furnace, the normal firegrates A are fire-hearths generally double, which are fed by the air which is heated by circulating through the baked products, before these latter arrive at the outlet orifice.

In advance ofthese fire-grates A are arranged the supplementary fire-grates B, the gases of which are deoxidizing. With this end in view, there is, in'these supplementary firegrates, no admission of air to be mixed with the gases of combustion, as is the case for the fire-grates A, which must furnish a very high temperature, in order to effect the baking of the porcelain in'the part of the furnace comprised between the supplementary fire-grates B and the fire-grates A.

Referring to Fig. 3, which is a cross-section of a deoxidizing fire-grate; the gases of combustion, after having embraced the firebridge a, penetrate the interior of the tunnel C by the orifices 6, without being mixed with additional air; the deoxidizing gases of these fire-grates B, drawn toward the chimney D, exercise upon the porcelain the deoxidizing action which is necessary to produce white porcelain of the sought-for quality, the verv hot gases, almost neutral, of the fire-grates A accomplishing then the perfect baking of the porcelain, which is suitably softened and whose pores are now filled up.

What I claim is: 1

In a furnace of the continuous type with signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ERNEST GABRIEL FAUGERON.

\Vitnesses H. C. Coxn,

CHARLES MARDELET. 

